At 03:57 AM 12/1/98 +1300, Rolland Elliott <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>What applications and subjects would justify the use of a 28-70/f2.8
>AFS lens? Does anyone really need a silent wave motor at these focal
>lengths? At two to three times the cost of the current version?
>Maybe I'm just being pessimistic, but I don't think this new lens is
>going to focus that much faster then the old versions made by Nikon
>(or Tokina or Sigma), expecially on a professional body like the F100
>or F5. And as far as noise is concerned doesn't mirror slap and the
>motor drive cause a lot more noise then the AF motor?
>
>Don't mean to start a flame, but to those of you that are saving up
>the cash for this lens....Why do you need it?
I think that there are a couple of issues. First, people have been begging
Nikon for a wider range medium pro zoom for a long time. The 35-70 was just
too narrow. The optical design on the 28-70 is using some big heavy glass
(77mm front elements) and that slows down the AF. I would suspect that a
non-AF-S version of this lens would focus about as fast as the 85mm F1.4 D lens
which is ok, but its not fast enough.
I think the silence issue is a bit over played, but the speed issue isn't. I
expect that you will see Nikon producing more AF-S lenses in shorter focal
lengths over time. Canon uses USM's in most all their lenses even though its
not absolutely necessary. I would expect AF-S to be the new pro standard.
Rob
